I have been wanting to read Stoker's Dracula for a while now, but I ended up picking up and reading The Jewel of Seven Stars instead.

The Jewel of Seven Stars is a story about Mr.Trelawney (which reminded me of Sybil Trelawney from Harry Potter and I wonder if it is confidence or if J.L. Rowling used the name intentionally) who is an Egyptian enthusiastic who basically curses himself and everyone around him by bringing Queen Tera's mummy and possessions into his home. The book mostly revolves around his daughter Miss Trelawney who seems to possess all of Queen Tera's qualities physically. Weird things happen in the house which explores the possibility of the magic of mummies.

This book fascinated me mostly because I have been watching Ancient Aliens on the History Channel. A lot of instances in the book made me relate what was going on to what some Alien historians believe.

There are two versions of this book. My professor suggested to the class that we read the older version, as it has a better ending the the revised edition. Apparently the endings are completely different.

My first Bram Stoker novel was, as most people's, "Dracula". For some reason, I have always loved Victorian Horror books, even the clichéd ones. I never minded having a weak female character, even though I consider myself to be a feminist (as in, I believe in equality, not superiority); and I kind of enjoyed the stereotyped male character who is dragged unfortunately in a dire situation, the clever yet lonely doctor, the rough and focused law-enforcement officer, and finally the wise elder man. And, of course, we need a monster. Who doesn't love monsters, right?

The characters themselves were, as I had expected, not original nor excessively deep, but I must admit I was expecting a better villain as the story progressed. Maybe I was waiting for another Dracula, a creature so evil it would not let me stop reading. And instead I found... Well, Queen Tera.

I'm not saying she's a BAD villain, as a matter of fact, I might be saying that my hopes were unrealistic. The ending, though, was absolutely disappointing, until I found out that there had been another one, an older one, which had been replaced. That ending made it better, though.
Seriously, don't read the 1912 version ending if you can avoid it.

Anyway, for better or for worse, this story didn't really affect me in any way. I didn't hate it, nor did I like it, so it just became another "already read" book in my list.

I really liked this quote on the development of scientfic inquiry:

Year by year, day by day, hour by hour, we are learning; but the end is far, far off. It seems to me that we are now at that stage of intellectual progress in which the rough machinery for making discovery is being invented. Later on, we shall have enough of the first principles to help us in the development of equipment for the true study of the inwardness of things.

And of course the final line:

Spoiler

It was merciful that I was spared the pain of hoping.

I've never been a big "Dracula" fan, so I figured I'd give another one of Stoker's works a shot. This was a bad choice. I hope his other works are better written, because this was painful to get through. If there was such a thing as mental water boarding, this is the water. My brain hasn't hurt as much since I suffered through "Let's All Kill Constance" by Ray Bradbury.

Hoo boy. I kept asking myself if I’d been scammed and that this was actually written by someone pretending to be Bram Stoker. The plot, characters, and line-by-line writing are poor, slow, and worst of all, just boring.

There are about 10 chapters that amount to watching someone in a room, people coming and going from a house, and trying to locate lamps.

Compared to Dracula, this is an utter disappointment.